Tuesday, November 18, 2008

(CNSNews.com) – Economists in Michigan, the long-time home of the auto industry, say they don’t support the proposed multi-billion dollar bailout of Big Three automakers Chrysler, GM and Ford.

One reason why, they say, is the ultra-high labor costs for union workers employed by the Big Three. It costs over $73 per hour on average to employ a union auto worker, according to University of Michigan at Flint economist Mark J. Perry.

“Is it right to tax the average worker making $28.50 to bailout workers whose labor cost is over $73 an hour?” Perry asked.

He explained that in 2006, widely available industry and Labor Department statistics placed the average labor cost for UAW-represented workers at the former DaimlerChrysler at $75.86 per hour. For Ford it was $70.51, he said, and for General Motors it was $73.26.

“That includes the hourly pay, plus the benefits they’re receiving and all the other costs to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, including legacy costs – retirement costs, pensions, and so on – so it’s looking at the total labor costs per hour worked for workers,” Perry said.

For U.S. workers at Toyota, however, the per hour labor cost is around $47.60, around $43 for Honda and around $42 for Nissan, Perry added, for an average of around $44.

“So we’re looking at somewhere around a $29 per hour pay gap between the Big Three and the foreign transplants that are producing cars in the United States,” Perry, chairman of the economics department, told CNSNews.com.

The average union worker at Chrysler, meanwhile, received 150 percent more in compensation than U.S. workers generally.

“Using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, the average compensation for manufacturing workers is around $31.50, and the average hourly compensation, including benefits, for the average worker in the U.S. economy is around $28.50,” Perry told CNSNews.com.

If you annualize Chrysler’s labor cost of $75.86 an hour per worker over a 35-hour week, for 50-weeks a year, the yearly compensation comes in at almost $133,000 per worker per year.

“That’s the cost to Chrysler of those workers,” Perry added. “That’s not necessarily what the worker would receive in a paycheck.”

Perry, meanwhile, said he is not personally in favor of a bailout.

“The question is, where do you stop? Would this just be a downpayment on a continuing bailout that they would need in the future?” he asked.

“Once we’re in for $25 billion, or $50 billion, it’s going to be a lot easier for them to ask for more money later,” he added.

The alternative to a bailout, Perry said, would be bankruptcy.

“We have a bankruptcy law to protect companies that need to go through reorganization for protection from their creditors,” Perry said.

Perry noted that proponents of a bailout cite a study that shows that one job out of every 10 jobs in the U.S. economy is tied to the auto industry.

“If we want this industry to be competitive and survive for the next decade or more, they really have to get their labor costs in line with reality and the global marketplace,” he said.

“Maybe it is time for the production to shift towards companies that have lower labor costs; that are more efficient and more productive. Even if that wasn’t production that took place in Michigan by United Auto Workers, it would still be production that would take place somewhere in the U.S. economy. So we would still have a large number of jobs tied to the auto industry.”

Hart C. Posen, a business school professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, said there are many economists who still question the 1979 bailout of Chrysler – and whether it was the right thing to do for the auto industry. He is one of them.

“There is no evidence that, in the long run, having bailed out Chrysler we’ve done anything good for the Michigan economy,” Posen told CNSNews.com

“My sense is that even with the bailout, one or more of those firms will disappear anyway,” he added. “There is significant overcapacity in the American automobile industry, and it is typically inevitable when there is significant overcapacity that some of it gets eliminated.”

A bailout directly to automakers will only delay the inevitable, Posen said.

“Historically, one of the strengths of the U.S. economy has been its willingness to let inefficient firms fail and redeploy those resources – money, but also people – to new and potentially more successful businesses. I think that has always been one of the distinctive strengths of the U.S. economy.”

Michael LaFaive at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market foundation in Midland, Mich., said all bailouts are bad policy – at least from an economic standpoint.

“They encourage what should be discouraged – basically commerce becoming supplicants of the federal government – or some other level of government. They discourage prudent decision-making on the part of business management and entrepreneurs. After all, if there is someone else there to pick up your mess, why be careful?”

Even President Bush, who supports the bailout, seemed to hint that contracts guaranteeing high compensation levels to UAW members are a stumbling block to reaching an agreement.

“The automakers have over time made some decisions based on their needs for their employees, and some of those decisions might have to be reworked, going forward,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Monday.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Bush would suport this but then again he hasn't done much lately to get me excited. I do think he is becoming a democrate and forgetting he is a republican.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the,6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests

Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beat, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center ...

'NEVER HAPPENED'

...because it offends some Muslim in the U.S. ???

Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT

If you can read this...thank a teacher.

If you can read this in English...thank a veteran.God Bless America!

This is an e-mail I received tonight. I just thought I would put it out here on my blog for all who read this blog to see. The past will repeat itself if we allow it to.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Ayers has finally decided to let America know the truth (well maybe- there might be more to this) about his relationship with Obama. It is a surprise that the truth during the election was not as forthcoming. What other lies don't we know about.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

WASHINGTON — Party officials say the Democratic National Committee has a $15 million debt in the wake of the Nov. 4 election.

The party took out loans to cover a surge of expenditures in the final weeks of the campaign. President-elect Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, issued an e-mail appeal for contributions Wednesday to help the party committee get out of the red.

Plouffe wrote: "Our friends at the Democratic National Committee laid it all on the line to bring change this year. We've been reviewing the books, and the DNC went into considerable debt to secure victory for Barack and Joe. It took unprecedented resources to staff up all 50 states, train field organizers, and build the technology to reach as many swing voters as possible."

(CNSNews.com) – The “change” that President-elect Barack Obama promised on the campaign trail will likely include overturning President George W. Bush’s 2001 executive order to prohibit the use of federal tax dollars for performing or advocating abortion as a means of family planning in foreign countries, Obama’s transition team has said.

“There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that,” John Podesta, head of Obama’s transition team, said when he appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”

One of those executive orders is the Mexico City Policy, or as critics call it, the “global gag act,” a U.S. policy first put into place at an August 1984 Conference on Population in Mexico City by President Ronald Reagan.

The Reagan policy required all non-governmental agencies, or NGOs, that received population aid dollars from the United States to agree to not perform or actively promote abortions.

In what has become a partisan tradition in the first days of both Republican or Democratic administrations, President Bill Clinton removed the order shortly after taking office in 1993, and Bush reinstated it on Jan. 22, 2001.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, told CNSNews.com that Obama has backed the pro-abortion agenda throughout his political career.

“And when he’s in the oval office he will nullify (the Mexico City Policy), and the result will be hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars going to organizations in developing countries that promote abortion,” Johnson said.

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has publicly criticized the policy, saying it limits abortion counseling even in countries where the procedure is legal.

In the 1980s, International Planned Parenthood-London, and Family Planning International Assistance tried but failed through court challenges to reverse the policy.

As a U.S. senator, Obama has backed proposed legislation to reverse the Mexico City Policy. After he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, his advisers are predicting the swift reversal of this and many other Bush executive orders, including the ban on medical research that creates and then destroys human embryos to harvest stem cells.

What a great way to spend our tax dollars that are collected from our money earned here in America. Isn't this money supposed to be spent here in America for our society, to keep our government going. I did not know we were to help other coutries kill babies.

Monday, November 10, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy.""We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.

Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally."We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."

Obama's transition office did not respond immediately to Broun's remarks.

(CNN) -- Fred Wadsworth sat at breakfast Monday morning wondering how he'll put food on his table from now on.

Fred Wadsworth, one of 8,000 employees facing layoff, says he doesn't know how he'll put food on his table.

He is one of more than 8,000 employees facing layoff after DHL announced it will close its hub in Wilmington, Ohio.

Residents in Wilmington knew DHL was going to cut jobs, but Monday's confirmation has delivered a devastating blow to the community. DHL is the area's largest employer."It's pretty bad," Wadsworth said. "We've been kind of figuring something's gonna happen, and as it stands now, we know that it's gonna shut down."

About 3,000 residents of Wilmington and Clinton County work at the DHL hub, with the rest of the workers coming from five surrounding counties.

Wilmington, which has a population of 12,000, will be dealt the biggest blow in terms of job loss. Watch Ohio residents talk about the devastating cuts »The town was already reeling from DHL's decision six months ago to have UPS take over the service's domestic air shipping, which put thousands out of work. Watch what the cuts mean for workers, DHL »"They're taking away everything from me, my family, my friends -- this whole town," DHL employee Sherry Barrett said as she wept during an interview.Don't MissOhio braces for reported DHL layoffsOhio officials were scrambling over the weekend to offset the expected job cuts. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent a letter Friday to DHL Chief Executive Officer John Mullen asking for immediate information about layoffs in the Wilmington area.

According to a statement from his office, Brown also called U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Howard Radzely "to seek immediate attention to a state of Ohio request for emergency funds to assist workers and communities affected by DHL's loss in business since announcing a proposed outsourcing agreement with UPS."

Ohio is already grappling with one of the highest jobless rates in the country -- 7.2 percent in September -- and Wilmington Mayor David Razik had prepared himself for the worst."Given the state of the economy and the worldwide economic collapse, we know it can't be good news," he said Sunday night. "Freight is down significantly, DHL is losing customers, they have laid off sales personnel in other locations. We really think it's certainly not going to be good for Wilmington."

DHL said its DHL Express unit will continue to operate between the United States and other nations. But the company said it is dropping "domestic-only" air and ground services within the United States by January 30 "to minimize future uncertainties."DHL's 9,500 job cuts are on top of 5,400 cuts announced in May. After the layoffs, between 3,000 and 4,000 employees will remain at DHL's U.S. operations, the company said. The company also said it is shutting all ground hubs and reducing the number of its U.S. stations to 103 from 412.

President-Elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, took note of Wilmington's troubles during the race for the White House. Obama said Wilmington "gives you some sense of the urgency that we feel when it comes to our economy." McCain said he was "deeply troubled by the specter of job loss confronting Wilmington."

"My husband's been there for 19 years and we've been worrying about this -- everybody in this community has," Joy McIntosh said.

Insurance agent Eric Welch is giving up on Wilmington and shutting his business by the end of the week."I don't see the long-term future in this community for me as an insurance agent to be very rewarding," said Welch, who is leaving town.